Recent advancements in wireless sensing and imaging have facilitated the instrumentation of living environments for a variety of applications spanning from home security to health and wellness monitoring. Such sensing and imaging are contributing to a deluge of data, nearly doubling every five years. Yet the translation of this abundant and esoteric data into instructive information (e.g., health and wellness assessment) remains an elusive product design goal.
In addition to sensing innovations, proliferation of automation (e.g., lights, locks, thermostats, etc.) and mobile devices has realized the vision of a connected home and connected life, responsive to stimuli from the environment or from people interacting in the environment. Such devices offer flexibility of functionality with the promise of anytime, anywhere awareness and control. Yet the optimal configuration and utilization of such devices is still challenging for most consumers.
Management of health and wellness often involves numerous caregiving stakeholders, including the direct user, formal (e.g., clinicians and care professionals) and informal (e.g., family) caregivers, and monitoring professionals. Stakeholders each require different modes of engagement. For example, whereas a direct user may desire hands-on, proactive self-management, a caregiver may only want to know how and when to intervene in response to compromised health or wellness. Furthermore, minimization of false-positives and confirmation of notification are both useful for event-triggered sensing modalities in health and wellness deployments. Therefore, synthesis of sensed phenomena, intelligent decision-making, and user interaction are beneficial to meeting application requirements for sensitivity, selectivity, and safety-criticality. Yet timely, actionable, and appropriate stakeholder engagement, direction, and intervention are not present in state-of-the-art solutions.